The Office of Small Business Advocate is located within the Comptroller of the Treasury. The mission of the Comptroller’s Office is to improve the quality of life for all Tennesseans by making government work better.

Purpose

The Office of Small Business Advocate serves as a point of contact to state government for owners of businesses with fifty (50) or fewer employees. The Office provides information and answers questions for Tennesseans who are starting a small business or who already own a small business. The Office assists in the resolution of issues concerning small businesses and state departments and agencies.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the Office include: answering questions and providing information to Tennessee’s small businesses; receiving comments from small business owners regarding regulatory or enforcement actions by agency or department employees; referring comments from small business owners to the appropriate agency or department; informally mediating and assisting with the resolution of issues concerning small business owners and state departments and agencies.

The Office of Small Business Advocate is committed to making state government work better for Tennessee’s small businesses. The Office strives to meet this goal by:

answering questions and providing information to residents of this state who are starting a small business or who already own a small business.

informally mediating and assisting with the resolution of issues concerning small business owners and state departments and agencies.

working with each state agency and department with regulatory authority over businesses to ensure that small business owners who receive or are subject to an audit, on-site inspection, compliance assistance effort, or other enforcement related communication or contact by agency or department personnel are provided with a means to communicate or comment on the enforcement activity conducted by such personnel.

receiving comments from small business owners regarding actions by agency or department employees conducting compliance or enforcement activities.

referring comments from small business owners to the contact person of the affected agency or department in the appropriate circumstances and to maintain the confidentiality of the identity of the person making such comments.